Monday, November 30, 2009

Today was spent in the sewing room working on a monogrammed pillow for one of Elizabeth's friends.Unfortunately I waited until the last minute; the Birthday is Wednesday and today was my only full day at home.

When possible I like giving handmade gifts so I put my "to do" list to the side and focused only on the pillow.

Friday, November 27, 2009

I do not like crowds! However, I have one exception...and that is Black Friday. To me it doesn't feel like Christmas until you are in the middle of Christmas shoppers; every year I like to go out into the crowds and window shop. Normally the only place I actually buy anything on Black Friday is the fabric store but this year I stopped by CVS for a minute and found some unexpected bargains; all of this for a whopping 27-cents!!!!

Just how did I get all this for 27-cents? The lotion and candy each had a promotion for ECB's equal to their value and the tooth brush, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion came out to 99-cents each after more promotional ECB's plus I had a holiday coupon for an additional 4-dollars in ECB's. So, I paid $23.74 out of pocket and received $23.47 in ECB's to be used anytime from now until December 27th.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Well, today I managed to sleep in before beginning day two of my cooking marathon. My ham was put in the roaster first thing so it could cook slowly until it began pulling away from the bone.

All the rich broth will be saved for pinto beans; oh yum, ham broth makes the very best pinto beans!

While the ham was cooking I made some Watergate Salad. My mom always made this when I was growing up; it's so good!

I also made some banana bread but one stuck in the pan.

Each year I make pecan pie;

And Elizabeth saved me some time by helping to break up the pecans for me.

This years pumpkin pie has been made from one of my garden pumpkins and I used a new recipe too.

Just in case the new pie doesn't taste right I made a second pumpkin pie from canned pumpkin using my regular recipe.

The last of today's pies is apple. I used all my large pie plates for the other pies so the apple had to be divided between two small pie plates. Tomorrow morning I will start the bread and other foods that do not work well making ahead; I am so looking forward to eating all this wonderful food tomorrow.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

CVS has Lucky Charms cereal on sale this week for $1.99 per box so I bought 2-boxes for Elizabeth; she loves to eat "Fun Cereal".When I got home my game box was a winning box; it contained a $10 gift card!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

It's the wrong season for newly hatched chicks but we had two hens so determined to hatch eggs that we finally gave in and let them each have 8 eggs a piece. On Thursday the eggs began hatching; out of 16 eggs we ended up with 9 new chicks.

Three eggs didn't hatch and I think a raccoon may have feasted on some of them as I had noticed something had been in the pen recently.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Along with the traditional candy bargains I normally buy after Halloween, this year I found some clothing bargains. For my nephew I found this cute t-shirt for 39-cents. (Eva, look for it in your Christmas package.)

For Elizabeth I found a cute orange pumpkin t-shirt for 49-cents...

And a black pumpkin t-shirt for 49-cents...

And a pair of polka dot pants for 59-cents; both t-shirts match these pants perfectly.

I love it when I find new items at the store for "garage sale" prices!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Bright and early this morning we began a butchering Marathon. Our goal was to butcher 22 large roosters; the job took us 10 hours!We then had to find suitable storage; thankfully Pat uses an old refrigerator at the warehouse for drinks and snacks but never uses the freezer. All 22 roosters just fit!It feels good to have this job finished. The next batch of roosters shouldn't need butchering until spring.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

My Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker has been slowly dying. I have had it for several years and wasn't sure what I was going to do when it finally died. When I was growing up my mom would make "sun tea" so I decided to give it a try. The only jar large enough for making tea was a gallon size jar that I normally use for sugar. After a quick washing I filled it with water and some tea bags.

It didn't take any time for the tea to make in the bright sunshine.

I wish I had thought of making sun tea sooner; I love how I now have one less kitchen gadget to deal with.